Cowboys: Signing Claiborne Means No More Carr
The Dallas Cowboys are in obvious need of playmakers in the defensive secondary and reshaping the cornerback position is already underway this offseason.
The Dallas Cowboys have decided on one more run with cornerback Morris Claiborne, the former LSU star defensive back that has never come close to living up to his billing as one of the top defensive players available who was chosen with the sixth-overall selection in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Many have waited, and waited – and waited some more for Claiborne to make some kind of impact for the Cowboys, and for those loyalists that continue to do so, your day may still come. Having been contributing elsewhere on the evening the ’12 NFL draft began, I was the one charged with analyzing the pick just after it happened. Let’s just say that I was never on board with drafting Claiborne, no matter that Terence Newman had just been mistakenly released in the weeks prior.
According to Dallas Morning News contributor David Moore, Claiborne’s one-year, $3 million contract is far less than what it would have cost the Cowboys to opt in to the fifth year of this player’s original rookie contract. That’s a good thing, considering that Claiborne hasn’t exactly been on the field much and his development in the NFL has been stymied accordingly.
Having said that, what exactly does Claiborne’s contract mean for the rest of defensive coordinator Rod Marinneli’s under-performing unit moving ahead?
For starters, it might very well mean that the Cowboys might really be in play for Florida State cornerback Jalen Ramsey, a move that would amount to the exact same mistake that owner and general manager Jerry Jones made with Claiborne, albeit less expensive in terms of resources allocated in acquiring another highly rated defensive back.
Primarily, holding on to Claiborne means the end of teammate Brandon Carr, the other major mistake the Cowboys made in 2012, in Dallas.
Earlier this month, Jones was quoted by Jon Machota of DMN with the following regarding the financial situation facing Dallas when it comes to keeping or releasing the eight-year veteran.
"Obviously when you’re making that kind of money, you subject yourself to some discussions. So, we’re obviously doing that and we’ll continue to do that."
In other words, when you’re paid like a shut-down cornerback, it’s expected that you’ll actually play like one, something that Carr has never come close to doing. This is not the kind of player that he is or ever was. His scheduled salary cap figure of $13.8 million for 2016 boarders on the absurd.
Only now are the huge mistakes made by Jones during the offseason of ’12 showing themselves like a flickering neon sign. Lost upon Jones was the fact that he didn’t exactly need new corners, but rather a run stuffing nose guard, something he never obtained for that now scrapped 3-4 thing, that would have created more passing downs that edge rushers like DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer could have feasted upon. Had this been the case, corners like Newman, Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick would have looked a whole lot better.
At this point, the Cowboys are rumored to have interest in Ramsey in this years draft and this comes just a year after Dallas spent another first-round selection on Connecticut cornerback Byron Jones in last year’s player selection meeting.
At least Cowboys Nation knows that Jones is actively trying to shore up a pass rush that’s really been hurting since the release of Ware, who just won his first Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos last month, by the way.
Next: Should The Dallas Cowboys Be More Active In Free Agency
No, Jones will never admit the errors of the ’12 offseason.
Then again, retaining Claiborne for just a year longer while preparing to say goodbye to Carr are the only pieces of evidence necessary to confirm these facts.